RA Magazine Blog: Top prize for Kapoor

Anish Kapoor RA has been awarded the Praemium Imperiale award for outstanding contribution to sculpture. The imperial family of Japan, on behalf of the Japan Art Association, are presenting Kapoor with £115,000 (15 million yen), a diploma and a medal for his achievements in October.

Click here to view more images

Kapoor’s big, bold, highly polished, often intensely coloured sculptures are internationally renowned for their visual impact and massive scale. In recent years he has blasted red wax at the Royal Academy’s walls, made a womb-like structure ‘Leviathan’ for the Grand Palais in Paris (see gallery above), and is currently working on an ambitious viewing platform entitled ‘Orbit’ just outside the Olympic Stadium in London.

His name will be added to the stellar list of Royal Academicians who have also won Praemium Imperiale awards over the years, including Zaha Hadid, Norman Foster and Richard Rogers for architecture, David Hockney for painting, Richard Long, Tony Cragg and Anthony Caro for sculpture.

In the audio clip below, Kapoor tells us about what it feels like to win the prize and be a Royal Academician, and he also reflects on his 2009 show at the RA:

• Anish Kapoor: Flashback, Edinburgh College of Art, 4 August – 4 September 2011. Visit website

• Royal Academy of Arts